Accurate Credit Reports: A Closer Look at the FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act Protects Consumers

Do you have an accurate credit report? Credit reports have a significant influence over various aspects of people’s lives, impacting decisions made by lenders, insurers, employers, landlords, and more. Credit and background reports are used to determine consumers’ eligibity for credit, employment and housing. However, consumer reports often contain errors, affecting one in five Americans. To rectify inaccuracies, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) empowers consumers with the ability to dispute inaccurate information on credit and background reports. The FCRA also requires credit reporting companies and data providers to investigate disputed information and to correct or delete inaccurate information.

CFPB and FTC Enforce the FCRA and Support Consumers

Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), entrusted with enforcing fair credit reporting laws, joined forces with consumers and filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Suluki v. Credit One Bank. The CFPB and FTC are trying to hold data furnishers (companies supplying data to credit reporting agencies) accountable under the FCRA and make the companies delete unverifiable information after notification of a consumer’s dispute.

The FCRA provides individuals with multiple avenues to challenge inaccuracies within their credit reports. Click HERE for a free sample credit report dispute letter. Typically, disputes are submitted to the nationwide credit reporting companies like Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion, which, in turn, forward them to the originating data providers. Upon receiving a dispute, the credit reporting agencies must delete or investigate disputed information.

You have the Right to an Accurate Credit Report

Importantly, if a data provider cannot confirm the accuracy of disputed information, the FCRA mandates that the data furnisher notify the credit reporting agency that the data could not be verified. However, some data furnishers argue that if they cannot definitively prove disputed information is false, they can still instruct credit reporting companies to continue reporting the disputed information in credit reports. You have the right to an accurate credit report.

The CFPB and FTC’s joint brief emphatically refutes this notion because the FCRA explicitly imposes requirements on companies concerning unverified disputed information, rendering the FCRA’s requirements meaningless if companies are allowed to continue to credit report unverified information to the credit reporting agencies. Recently, the CFPB and FTC have filed amicus briefs in several FCRA cases to uphold compliance with federal credit reporting laws. The Suluki v. Credit One Bank, NA, No. 23-721 (2d Cir.) case highlights the importance of accurate credit reporting. Do you have errors on a credit report? Do you need help clearing your name?

The Adkins Firm Helps Consumers with Credit Report Errors

The Adkins Firm represents Houston consumers who do not have accurate credit reports. We help our clients clear their name. Do you have errors on a credit report, background report or tenant screening report?  Have you disputed the error and the information was verified as accurate? If you answered yes, then you may have a claim under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Please note, there is a statute of limitations that may bar you from recovering for your damages. Don’t wait.  Contact us for a free case review at (214) 974-4030.